Is the Christian faith a “leap into the dark”?

Normally I’d begin today with headline news such as Saturday’s shocking trade of superstar Luka Dončić by the Dallas Mavericks, last night’s Grammy Awards without a single Taylor Swift win, or this morning’s stock futures tumble as tariff wars begin between the US and key trade partners. However, I’d like to do something different by taking you on a brief journey that may seem to meander a bit, but we’ll get to the point by the end.

Let’s begin with a question: Are the Kansas City Chiefs getting preferential treatment from the NFL?

There was a dubious roughing of the passer penalty against Houston’s Will Anderson Jr. that extended a Chiefs drive in their playoff win over Houston. And a “catch” on a touchdown drive by Chiefs receiver Xavier Worthy on a ball that seemed to hit the ground. Worst of all, it seemed to all the world that Bills quarterback Josh Allen gained the necessary inches to convert a critical fourth-and-one in Buffalo’s loss to the Chiefs that denied them a Super Bowl berth.

Now add this: The Chiefs will wear their white jerseys in Sunday’s game. And teams wearing white uniforms win the Super Bowl 64 percent of the time.

It is undoubtedly good for the NFL when Taylor Swift shows up on national television to support her boyfriend, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce; presumably, she’ll make another appearance this Sunday. And we all know that professional football is a business before it’s anything else. So numerous voices decrying the league’s “preferential” treatment of the Chiefs are upset. We can expect a crescendo of complaints as the big game nears this week.

Why are the Giants and the Jets so bad?

But here’s the thing: the National Football League is the most valuable sports league in the world, with teams worth a total of $163 billion. The NFL’s chief source of revenue is television money. The league is guaranteed $125.5 billion over the next decade, $3.92 billion per team. But Kansas City is only the No. 34 TV market in the country. New York City is first, but the Giants and the Jets are two of the worst teams in the league.

Meanwhile, the league’s two smallest markets—Buffalo and Green Bay—are perennial playoff contenders. The Dallas Cowboys are reputationally “America’s Team,” but they last appeared in the Super Bowl thirty years ago.

Taylor Swift aside, what would motivate the NFL to risk its reputation—and multi-billion dollar business—to favor the Chiefs?

In addition, it turns out that the Philadelphia Eagles are the “home” team for Sunday’s game (the designation alternates between the NFC and the AFC year by year) and chose to wear dark uniforms. So if there’s a conspiracy involving white jerseys, they’re in on it.

Now imagine the collusion that would be necessary for the league and its referees to cheat in favor of the Chiefs. Seven officials work an NFL game, with an eighth official working replays in the press box. Kansas City is playing in the Super Bowl again this year primarily because they have won seventeen straight one-score games (the outcome is decided by eight points or less). If we believe that the Chiefs are where they are because officials are determining the outcomes of games, that’s a lot of referees who have cheated in a lot of contests.

In June 1972, five men were caught burglarizing the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters in the Watergate complex. They and their two handlers could not keep their conspiracy secret, leading to the eventual resignation of the president of the United States. Are we to believe that scores of referees, their families, and league officials have kept the “Chiefs conspiracy” a secret from the prying 24/7 news media circus for years?

And again, to what end?

Punxsutawney Phil vs. Staten Island Chuck

Speaking of conspiracies, Punxsutawney Phil gave us the bad news yesterday: six more weeks of winter are coming. But Phil is right only 35 percent of the time, ranking #17 among the groundhogs and other animals who “predict” the weather each winter.

Does this mean that a conspiracy exists to keep Phil in the news? His hometown in western Pennsylvania is home to less than six thousand people. I’m going with Staten Island Chuck, who represents the largest city in America and is right 85 percent of the time. Plus, I like his prediction better—he did not see his shadow yesterday, forecasting an early spring.

The origins of Groundhog Day date back to German settlers in the 1800s who celebrated the Christian festival of Candlemas on February 2, the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Early Christians thought a sunny Candlemas meant forty more days of cold and snow.

But here’s the larger story: Candlemas Day is another name for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Forty days after Jesus’ birth, Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple for the rites of purification and dedication prescribed by the Torah (Leviticus 12). On that day, a “righteous and devout” man named Simeon took the infant Christ in his arms and proclaimed him “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:25, 32).

Forty days from December 25 is February 2. Since at least the seventh century, candles have been used on that day to celebrate mass (thus “Candlemas”).

Four transformative facts

Now let’s connect some dots.

One: John’s Gospel calls Jesus “the Word” (John 1:1), translating the Greek word logos. The philosopher Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC) was the first to use this concept to describe the overarching Reason and Order that sustains an ever-changing world. Jesus embodies this Principle in ways Heraclitus could not have imagined (cf. Colossians 1:15–17).

Two: John also calls Jesus “the true light, which gives light to everyone” (John 1:9). So we know that he enables all who receive his light to experience the reason and order he best can give.

Three: This is why Jesus calls us to love God with “all” our minds (Matthew 22:37). It is why some of the most brilliant scientists and thinkers in history have been committed followers of Christ. And it is why we can believe in the truth of God’s word and the divinity of God’s Son based on remarkable evidence and compelling logic. Jesus’ resurrection, for example, was no conspiracy—it was a fact of history that has changed billions of lives. The Christian faith is not a “leap into the dark” but a journey into the light.

Four: Now you and I can “walk in the light, as he is in the light” (1 John 1:7). When we do, we will testify with the psalmist, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1). We will light the candle of faith as “a sign of the divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal life” (St. Sophronius).

And we will make every day Candlemas, knowing that,

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

It never will.

Will you “walk in the light” today?

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Quote for the day:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out late; only love can do that.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Denison Forum